Karen Griffith Gryga

Karen Griffith Gryga is a veteran venture capitalist and operator with more than three decades of experience in startups, venture capital, and private equity. She trained as a technologist before moving into investing: she earned a B.S. in Computer Science from the College of William & Mary, a Master's in Computer Science from the Moore School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA in Decision Analysis from the Wharton School (WG'93, with Distinction). Before her accelerator career she was a Founder and Partner of Liberty Venture Partners, a Philadelphia-based venture fund, and earlier a Managing Director at Philadelphia Ventures Inc., a privately held venture capital management firm.

In 2012 Gryga became Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Dreamit Ventures, one of the earliest U.S. technology accelerators, which has worked with roughly 300 companies since 2008. At Dreamit she oversees the Dreamit Funds and the accelerator's roughly four-month, hands-on program that brings early-stage companies in to validate and de-risk their business opportunities through intensive mentorship, expert sessions, and investor access. She co-founded Dreamit Health, the firm's digital-health vertical, and in 2014 founded Dreamit Athena, an accelerator track dedicated to female founders that pairs them with personalized mentoring, community, and an investor network.

More recently Gryga has moved into an operating role, serving as Chief Operations Officer of Biomeme, Inc.—a vertically integrated molecular diagnostics company spanning reagents, hardware, software, and CLIA lab services—and its subsidiary One Health Laboratories. Biomeme is itself a Dreamit alumnus, reflecting her long relationship with the company. She remains associated with Dreamit as Chief Investment Officer and is an active angel investor and frequent speaker on venture capital and entrepreneurship in both professional and academic settings. She has served on the board of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania and was recognized with a Leadership Legacy Award from Vistage in 2016.

• Invests primarily at seed / early stage through the Dreamit accelerator and Dreamit Funds, with selective Series A participation (e.g., Cherre's 2020 Series A).
• Sector emphasis on healthtech/digital health, edtech, enterprise & securetech, and urbantech/real-estate tech, reflecting Dreamit's diversified but vertical-focused model.
• Strong, explicit commitment to female founders through Dreamit Athena, which she built to address structural barriers (access to capital, lack of role models) and confidence gaps she saw women founders face.
• Coaches founders on her "60% rule": *"Stop trying for 100 percent. When you are 60 percent there, you go for it. Once you are out in the market, you will get feedback and direction."*
• Believes founders are selling themselves as much as their product: *"You have to sell who you are as much as you sell what you do."*
• Values founders who push into discomfort: *"Live in fear and get outside of your comfort zone. If you are not nervous or uncertain, then you are not pushing yourself hard enough."*